Mumbai: Around 80 lakh women have become ineligible from receiving benefits under the Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana post an e-KYC process, leading the Opposition to allege the Maharashtra government was weeding out recipients due to a "severe financial crisis".
However, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis rejected allegations that the government had removed lakhs of women from the cash transfer scheme, asserting only ineligible beneficiaries were weeded out through a verification process.
A senior official informed that the beneficiary count has dropped from 2.4 crore to nearly 1.7 crore after the e-KYC (Know Your Customer) deadline of April 30, but the disqualifications were also linked to non-compliance with eligibility criteria of the scheme launched two years ago.
The government had provided an eight-month window for beneficiaries to complete their e-KYC to continue getting the monthly stipend of Rs 1,500 under the scheme targeted at poorer women, he said.
"Around 50 to 55 lakh women failed to complete the process entirely, while two to three lakh rectified errors during this period. Additionally, nearly 12 lakh women were found to be income-tax payers exceeding the annual income cap of Rs 2.5 lakh (under the scheme), and over 4.5 lakh had crossed the upper age limit of 65 years," the official said.
Around five lakh women were already receiving benefits under the Namo Shetkari scheme for farmers, he added.
Addressing complaints that women who completed e-KYC missed monthly instalments, the official noted, "The final figure of actual beneficiaries will be clear in a week, and the complaints are being cross-verified." He denied that 80 lakh women were dropped from the scheme solely on the grounds of non-completion of e-KYC.
Fadnavis said the government had not excluded any eligible woman from the flagship welfare scheme and insisted the verification exercise was aimed at ensuring benefits reached only deserving beneficiaries.
"We have not excluded anyone. There were several criteria for eligibility. We initiated the KYC process and identified beneficiaries who were either ineligible or had discrepancies in their records," the CM said at an event organised by a regional news channel in Mumbai.
According to the chief minister, the verification exercise revealed that around 14,000 men, five lakh government employees, 10 lakh income-tax payers and five lakh vehicle owners had been receiving benefits despite not meeting the eligibility conditions.
Fadnavis noted beneficiaries who failed to complete the mandatory KYC process and those found ineligible were blocked from receiving payments under the scheme.
The CM said errors were also detected in the KYC details of about 25 lakh women beneficiaries and these records were subsequently corrected.
"The government is ready to undertake the KYC process again. However, those who are ineligible will not receive any money under the scheme," he emphasised.
Describing the scheme as the largest welfare programme of its kind implemented by any state, Fadnavis said the government remained committed to extending benefits to all eligible women while ensuring transparency and preventing misuse of public funds.
Opposition NCP (SP)'s leader Jayant Patil, however, claimed that the dropping of beneficiaries from the scheme reflects a "severe financial crisis" faced by the state.
Patil claimed the scheme was rolled out ahead of the 2024 assembly elections solely because of the ruling Mahayuti alliance's poor show in the Lok Sabha polls that year.
"Now, as many as 80 lakh women beneficiaries have been declared ineligible. This amounts to abandoning the very people who were promised assistance," he said.
The former Maharashtra finance minister claimed that the move was indicative of the growing financial strain on the state government.
"After the Centre, the state, too, is facing a major financial crisis. The first blow has fallen on our 'ladki bahins' (beloved sisters). The state's fiscal deficit is substantial, and the global economic slowdown has further aggravated the situation," Patil said.
NCP (SP) MLA Rohit Pawar alleged that the state government was gradually removing beneficiaries from the Ladki Bahin scheme with the ultimate aim of discontinuing it.
Pawar, in a statement, claimed that while the scheme had 2.47 crore beneficiaries before the November 2024 assembly elections, the names of around 81 lakh women had now been removed from the list of recepients.
"KYC is merely an excuse. The real intention is to remove beneficiaries in phases and eventually shut down the scheme," he alleged.
"If the government is now calling these women bogus beneficiaries, was it not the government's own failure to implement the scheme without proper KYC verification before the elections?" the Opposition MLA asked.
He warned the BJP-led government against taking any action to recover money from the women beneficiaries dropped from the scheme or causing them inconvenience.
Congress leader Vijay Wadettiwar accused the Mahayuti government of betraying beneficiaries of the scheme, which he claimed was launched only to get votes.
The government rolled out the scheme with a lot of publicity, but has now distanced itself from the beneficiaries, he said.
NCP (SP) Lok Sabha MP Supriya Sule insisted the scheme was implemented in a hurry.
"It is surprising that the government has realised only after about one-and-a-half years that 80 lakh women were allegedly ineligible. This shows a serious collective failure of the government at the political, administrative and implementation levels. The scheme is funded by taxpayers' money. Therefore, an important question arises: was the government distributing public money to ineligible beneficiaries for the last one-and-a-half years?" she said in a post on X.
She alleged that the government made false promises to women only for political gains.
"The number of affected women is very large. Our stand is that every eligible woman in Maharashtra must continue to receive benefits of the scheme regularly. Women should not be denied benefits because they could not complete e-KYC within a specified deadline," Sule said.
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray claimed the government had promised to hike the stipend, but instead declared more than 80 lakh beneficiaries ineligible.
